Dick Powell, star of screen, radio, TV, was a solid professional who made several major transitions in the course of his great career.First was the popular singer who sang songs in flashy

Dick Powell circa 1937

Depression era Busby Berkeley directed films such as "Forty Second Street" and Mervin LeRoy's Gold Diggers of 1933, which co-starred Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler. A smart, pretty-boy type just right for the glitz and military school-inspired Berkeley visual extravaganzas, Powell was later to say, "I was so insipid I wanted to throw up. It took me five years of fighting to get out of those roles." His audience loved the films, and still do today.

In the early 1940's, Powell signed with Paramont and did some decent films, but couldn't get the dramatic actor roles he yearned for. "Model Wife" was a solid film, but finally in 1944, director Edward Dmytryk gave Powell the lead in Raymond Chandler's "Farewell My Lovely." To make the point more obvious to the film public, they changed the title to "Murder, My Sweet." The film is now considered a Film Noir classic, but at the time, Powell stunned his musical fans with his acting portrayal of Philip Marlowe, the scruffy, sardonic detective. With this film, Dick Powell was on to his second screen career at last. "To the Ends of the Earth" was released in 1948, and then "The Bad and the Beautiful" in 1952. Now he had several films where he really had acted, and the public knew it. He was happy, too. He had married June Allison, whose star also rose in the late 1940's and '50's.

Yet all the while, Powell had been working asa radio actor, and had been doing so since first appearing as a star on several of the top radio shows of the 1930's. He had been featured on Lux Radio Theatre over a dozen times, including his hit films "Gold Diggers" in 1936, "Model Wife" in 1941, (both with his second-wife Joan Blondell) and then "Murder, My Sweet" in 1945 and "To the Ends of the Earth" in 1949.

The Marlowe tough guy of his hit movie "Murder, My Sweet" was just right for the mood of the post-World War II audiences, so it was a natural to take the tough, descriptive detective work to radio. And Powell did as a tough, wisecracking detective.

First came Rogue's Gallery in 1945-46. Richard Rogue was a working stiff kind of a private eye, and had a quick tongue. A guy talking in an echo chamber sounding like Arnold Stang is "Eugor", some kind of an unconscious voice that gets mixed up in the episodes. Rogue's Gallery was just a warm up for Richard Diamond, a series that took the best of the Richard Rogue character and made it even more suave and swinging by placing Diamond in New York City and giving him a Park Avenue girlfriend that purrs like a Jaguar. Richard Diamond began in 1949, and took off as one of the most popular private eye shows on network radio, right up there with Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Phillip Marlowe, Private Eye. Actually, Powell had made the pilot episode for the Marlowe show, but luckily for all concerned, he passed it up and did the Richard Diamond show instead. Marlowe was straight-ahead gumshoe crime and grime, with all the poetry in glints of Chandler-like description. The Richard Diamond, Private Detective, as aided and abetted by writer/editor Blake Edwards of later Pink Panther fame, was a sparkling combination of tongue-in-cheek with right to the jaw, all topped off with a song as chaser at the end of every episode. Dick Powell was the perfect man for that job!

Dick went on to television and film direction and production as a founder of Four Star Productions. He was as smart, tough and hard working off the set as on it. Powell said of his stardom, "What counts most in this profession is survival. There were lots of stars bigger than I, but I saw them come and go. Somehow, I've managed to survive, and that's what I'm proud of." Tough guy talk, or grown-up starry-eyed idealist? You be the judge.

There's more detective crime on old time radio that you can shake a swizzle stick at. Start with one, and follow the leads. Tough guys Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade are a good place to begin. For personality, you might try Sherlock Holmes, or The Saint or a current revival favorite, Nero Wolfe.

Episodes of Richard Diamond, Private Detective and Rogue's Gallery along with audition recordings and other guest appearances starring Dick Powell, are all in the Dick Powell Collection!